Description
1948 backstamped PEDI airmail: commercial cover from NYC to Walter Eitan at Foreign Ministry in Kirya TEL AVIV, machine franked 25c airmail rate on JUN 23 48 and tied by PEDI Type II cancel, cover numbered 19687 (corresponds to 23-24 June) - 15th shipment; backstamped 13-7-1948 HAKIRYA arrival - extremely rare on a PEDI cover as these not usually registered mails. Slit open at top. Eitan was a legendary diplomat & director general of the Foreign Ministry at this time. A similar cover numbered 7907 and backstamped 14-7-48 Rishon Le Zion arrival sold at auction (TAS-39 7/13) for $1500 on a $500 start. "Palestine Emergency Deliveries Inc." was a private company founded by the Jewish Agency in New York, to collect mail and send it to Israel at a time when the British ceased their postal activities in the Mandate and air links to it were suspended. PEDI mail was carried as baggage, first on a KLM flight to Rome (ref. instructional marking on front), and then forwarded to Israel by Czechoslovakian airlines.